The present invention relates to cabinets in which the environment inside the cabinet is controlled and more particularly to refrigerated cabinets and warming cabinets with swing door access to the temperature and/or humidity controlled compartment(s).
In a commercial setting, foodstuffs and/or other products that require controlled environments insofar as the temperature and/or humidity is concerned, are periodically being withdrawn from the environmentally controlled compartment of a cabinet such as a refrigerated cabinet or a warming cabinet. Accordingly, the stored contents of these temperature and/or humidity controlled compartments periodically are replenished. The most convenient and efficient way to effect such replenishment is typically via a large swing door. However, individual portions of the stored contents are being retrieved from storage numerous times during the course of the day and over much shorter intervals than the time periods that elapse between restocking of the environmentally controlled storage compartment. Opening such a large swing door to retrieve individual portions of the stored items has the undesirable effect of uncovering the entire access opening of the temperature and/or humidity controlled storage compartment and exposing same to the ambient atmosphere. This repetitive opening to retrieve individual portions of foodstuffs or other products taxes the capacity of the refrigeration and/or warming equipment and is inefficient.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved environmentally controlled cabinet that can be used in a commercial setting to store foodstuffs or other items requiring a controlled environment.
It is also a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved temperature and/or humidity controlled cabinet that permits numerous individual portions of foodstuffs or other products to be constantly withdrawn from the environmentally controlled compartment without unduly taxing the refrigeration or is warming equipment and without hindering the process of restocking the environmentally controlled compartment.
It is another principal object of the present invention to provide an improved environmentally controlled cabinet that minimizes heat gain and/or loss with respect to the environmentally controlled compartment of the cabinet during the numerous and frequent instances when individual portions of foodstuffs and/or other products are constantly withdrawn from the environmentally controlled compartment and without hindering the process of restocking the environmentally controlled compartment.
It is a further principal object of the present invention to provide an improved temperature and humidity controlled cabinet that minimizes humidity fluctuations in the environmentally controlled compartment of the cabinet during the numerous and frequent instances when individual portions of foodstuffs or other items are periodically withdrawn from the environmentally controlled compartment and without hindering the process of restocking the environmentally controlled compartment.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the objects and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the temperature and/or humidity controlled cabinet of the present invention includes an environmentally controlled compartment having a main access opening and a swing door that is configured to selectively permit access to the inside of the environmentally controlled compartment via at least a portion of the main access opening and to close off access to the inside of the environmentally controlled compartment via at least a portion of the main access opening. The cabinet further includes at least one sliding door that is defined in a portion of the swing door and that is configured to selectively permit access to the inside of the environmentally controlled compartment and to close off access to the inside of the environmentally controlled compartment.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one embodiment of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.